Takeover Potential Raises Value of Small US Financial Institutions

The Wall Street Journal, Ian McDonald, 22 December 2005The stocks of little banks have big price tags -- and vice versa. For the scads of investors holding shares of small community banks hoping they will be acquired by a bigger player, that could be a problem.When smaller banks trade at prices that are higher multiples of their per-share earnings than their bigger brethren, as they have for